Illumination – Supports – Modifier support
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-29
2003-06-10
O'Shea, Sandra (Department: 2875)
Illumination
Supports
Modifier support
C362S306000, C362S288000, C362S274000, C362S372000, C362S549000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06575606
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a light source mounting apparatus for use in liquid crystal projector.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Liquid crystal projector is an image displaying technique well known in the art. Its general operation principle is illustrated in
FIG. 1. A
light generator
10
has a lamp located in a reflector
11
(which contains a parabolic reflection mirror) to generate reflecting parallel light rays passing through a illumination system
80
, a liquid crystal display panel
40
and a recombination system
90
, and a lens
50
to project the original image from the liquid crystal display panel
40
to a front screen
60
.
When there is a need to replace the lamp, the light generator
10
must be taken out or restored through a light source mounting apparatus (referring to FIGS.
2
and
3
). For instance, the liquid crystal projector made by Epson Co. of Japan has a light source mounting apparatus which includes a steel wire
71
engaged with the outer side of the light generator
10
to couple the light generator
10
with a lamp frame
70
. Then the lamp frame
70
and light generator
10
are mounted in a casing
30
to complete the assembly. For disassembly, the first step is to move a handle
231
to disengage the assembly of the lamp frame
70
and light generator
10
from the casing
30
. Such a design has problems in use, notably:
1. When to mount the light generator
10
on the lamp frame
70
, it takes a great force from the user to engage the steel wire
71
with the light generator
10
. Of course, when to replace the light generator
10
, the steel wire
71
also has to be removed. It gives user similar difficulty.
2. When to reassemble, such a structure is not able to guide the light generator
10
accurately returning to its original optical path before the disassembly.
As every assembly step will create a tolerance, the accumulated tolerance tends to produce a large deviation from the original optical path and will result in project color shift, non-uniformity and decreasing of light intensity.
3. When to replace the lamp, the handle
231
has to be pulled with a great force to remove the assembly of the lamp frame
70
and light generator
10
from the casing
30
. Due to the tightly engagement of the power supply plug, the pulling of the handle
231
could easily deform the handle
231
and makes it detached from the lamp frame
70
. From operation perspective, when the handle
231
is not use, it relies the deforming elastic force of the handle
231
to dispose it flatly at the bottom of the lamp frame, therefore will result in a complicated shape and takes more space. It is obviously that there are still rooms for improvement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The primary object of this invention is to provide a light source mounting apparatus for liquid crystal projector that enables the light generator automatically positioning precisely when it is disassembled and reassembled again to ensure the projecting light returning to its original designed optical path.
The light source mounting apparatus according to this invention comprises a lamp base and a casing. The lamp base is a board including a holding unit. The casing provides a space for housing at least the lamp base, a front positioning plane and a strip spring located at the front positioning plane. When the whole structure has been disassembled and reassembled again, the holding unit forces the light generator located thereon automatically pressing against the front positioning plane for rapidly finishing the initial positioning, and the strip spring has a rear end to engage with the light generator tightly when the two elements are coupled together such that the light generator will press against the front positioning plane tightly to automatically finish positioning thereby to return the optical path in coincidence with the one prior to the disassembly.
The foregoing and additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6082878 (2000-04-01), Doubeck et al.
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Industrial Technology Research Institute
Ton Anabel
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